directed by Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin, and Eric Guillon
written by Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul
When I first saw the posters for the animated sequel Despicable Me 3, the premise of which is that the protagonist, ex-supervillain Gru (Steve Carell) has a twin brother, also played by Carell, I snickered at the tag-line printed in big, black letters: "Oh, Brother" and thought to myself, how very apt.
As much as I enjoyed the very first Despicable Me film seven years ago, and, to a lesser extent, its sequel four years ago, I knew, after that second film, and especially after the trashy, unabashedly commercial Minions spin-off/prequel, that creatively, this team pretty much had nowhere else to go with their conceit of a supervillain gone straight. I also knew that, considering the gargantuan grosses of both the latter two movies (with Minions racking up over a billion dollars at the global box office), making a DM3 movie was pretty much a no-brainer. I just didn't figure on it being a no-brainer storywise, as well.
The premise is so lazy one wonders how much thought even went into it. When Gru, working for the Anti-Villain League that was introduced in the second film, is unable, yet again, to capture 80's themed supervillain Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker, playing an over-the-hill child star in a bit of "meta" casting given his own, long-gone fame), he loses his job, as does his wife, Lucy (Kristen Wiig) when she tries to stick up for him. At the same time, Gru's minions (Pierre Coffin) who have been egging him on to resume his life of villainy, are fed up when he refuses, and quit working for him, with the exception of two of them. Also at the same time, Gru is invited to meet his long lost twin brother Dru, whose very existence his mother (Julie Andrews) had concealed from him because of an acrimonious divorce. Dru apparently lives in opulence as the number one pig farmer in the (fictional) country of Freedonia, but he has a secret that Gru, still smarting from losing his job, will soon learn to his chagrin.
The gang's all back from the last movie, with the exception of Agnes and Edith, who have both been recast presumably due to the voice actors having grown up, and to be truthful the film feels as stale as a sequel to a franchise that's run out of ideas would feel. Parker, best known for the bawdy humor of his South Park series, seems pretty lost when placed in a family-friendly film, and in any case his "Balthazar Bratt" is nowhere near as entertaining as Jason Segel's Vector and Benjamin Bratt's El Macho from the previous films were. I'll admit to being entertained by the 80s-themed dance battle, though really, I wonder if anyone not of my generation is even going to appreciate the reference.
The worst part was seeing (or more appropriately hearing) Carell and the other voice-actor mainstays phoning in their roles, which, for all I know, is literally what they were doing. Carell brought so much life to Gru when the character debuted the better part of a decade ago, with his zany, vaguely Russian accent and just the right mix of malevolence and vulnerability. Now he genuinely feels like he just doesn't give two s**ts about his character or his belatedly-introduced brother. And the less said about Julie Andrews' revisiting the character of Gru's mom, the better. Suffice it so say her sole purpose here is basically as an exposition device, and she can't even be bothered to put on a specific accent this time around.
The Minions, the official avatars of Illumination Studios, have an insufferable subplot that's not even worth describing other than that it gives the filmmakers an excuse to crack tired, old prison jokes.
About the only notable thing about this movie is how the writers sort of manage to address the issue of how to have more adventures with Gru and the Minions without having Gru revert to being a bad guy (mild spoiler alert there). This issue is addressed, after a fashion, and the results are mildly entertaining. The film even looks good, which is an area in which Illumination continues to impress, considering they spend considerably less on their films than their rivals at Disney and Dreamworks. They'll probably be able to rake in several hundred million dollars (at least) from a few more films of this series.
But really, as a creative endeavor, this film franchise has really run its course.
5.5/10
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